About Me

Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. Author of FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND THE SECULAR STATE (2012), HUMANITY ENHANCED (2014), and THE MYSTERY OF MORAL AUTHORITY (2016).

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Transhumanism seminars

I'm conducting three two-hour seminars on transhumanism, aimed at postgraduate and honours students, the first of which took place today. In that time, it's only possible to scratch the surface of the huge body of relevant literature, but I did put together a set of relevant readings, avoiding anything of book length except a recommendation of James Hughes's Citizen Cyborg. I wanted a set of materials that would introduce the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of the transhumanist movement, provide participants with a sound basis from which to apply the law of expanding footnotes to get a more comprehensive picture of the literature, introduce some specific aspects of the controversy, and also, I must admit, frame some of the issues from my own particular viewpoint. Here is what I came up with.

Next time, we'll look at the bioconservative pieces by Annas et al, Kass, and Sandel, plus Bostrom's "Posthuman Dignity" article. I had a small group, but some interesting discussion, so I hope for more of the same next week.

I have one student who wants to write a longish (4,500 word) essay exploring the psychological basis for fear of technology. The small group of us spent a fair bit of the last seminar discussing this issue, and she now has a lot of leads, including a copy of a rather speculative lecture that I gave on the topic last year. I'll be fascinated to see what she comes up with, as I have a real interest in the whole issue of why pre-scientific ways of thinking persist.

She'll be reading up on the theory of background conditions, Paul Bloom's work, and various other things.